’s bankruptcy due to the exorbitant cost of publishing his lavish edition of Claudius Ptolemy, Justus de Albano of Venice acquired Holl’s woodblocks and commissioned 

 to reissue the publication in 1486 at a much more economised scale of about a thousand copies. 

Remarkably, about one hundred and twenty examples of the two editions survive intact today. For the 1482 edition, Holl ordered his paper stock from Italy, and used expensive lapis for the blue of his oceans. In this later edition, 

 used less extravagant materials. What was once presumably a purple wash in the oceans and seas has faded to brown after a five-hundred-year interval, as is typical of nearly all examples of the 1486 edition.

The text of Ptolemy’s ‘

’ was translated into Latin from the original Greek by Jacobus Angelus and was first published, during the Renaissance, at Vicenza (1475, unillustrated), Bologna (1477) and Rome (1478). The sumptuous edition published by Holl at Ulm in 1482, and retitled as ‘Cosmographia’, however, far surpassed all earlier efforts and remains one of the most important publications in the history of cartography.

The representation of the world itself is on an ovoid projection stretching from the Western Atlantic across to Asia. It covers 180 degrees of longitude encompassing one half of the known globe as it was understood by Claudius Ptolemy in 150 CE. Nicolaus Germanus is depicted in the first illuminated letter of the atlas presenting his book to the dedicatee Pope Paul II.

Generally, the world is shown as it was understood by the Alexandrine ancients, on a Ptolemaic projection extending from Great Britain in the northwest, the Canary Islands in the west, mid-China in the east, and North Africa in the south; the Indian Ocean features a large island, Taprobana (Sri Lanka) with the new addition of a rudimentary Scandinavia within an extension of the map above the neatline, the whole surrounded by a broad decorative border including twelve windheads.

Africa is connected to Asia by a southern land bridge turning the Indian Ocean into a land-locked sea. There is a note, ironically repeated on Africa, that these southern ‘Lands were unknown to Ptolemy’. Following classical geography, the Nile is shown rising from two great lakes fed from rivers in the Mountains of the Moon. The outline of the western coast of Africa extending down towards the equator follows the Ptolemaic model but with several additional place names and details deriving from fifteenth century Portuguese-sponsored exploration along the coast by explorers such as 

.

Interestingly, China is split between The Kingdom of Sina (China) in the south, and further north, the Kingdom of Serica (Silk). This division of China may come from the inability of the Greeks and Romans of the Classical period to correlate the differing accounts of reaching China by the overland and the maritime routes and the subsequent failure to realise that the terminus of both routes was the same.

This is the first printed world map to extend the actual territory shown below the Tropic of Capricorn; and is also the earliest printed map to show the northernmost reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, heralding the dawn of the age of exploration.

A curious change between 

’s is that the Tropic of Capricorn, correctly named in the first edition, has been mistakenly labelled Tropic of Cancer in the reissue.


’s ‘Cosmographia’, a new edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘

’ often referred to as the ‘Ulm Ptolemy’, is one of the foundational pieces of Early Modern cartography (see SC-TM-1482-Anon-PWorldMap). It is a powerful demonstration of how the surviving remnants of geographical knowledge from the classical era formed the basis of European exploration in the Early Modern world.

This second edition of the so-called ‘Ulm Ptolemy’, was issued by the Venetian publisher Justus de Albano who acquired Holl’s materials following his declared bankruptcy in 1484. He then commissioned 

 to reissue Holl’s ‘Cosmographia’ in 1486, using more economical means rather than the extravagant decoration that had put Holl out of business.

Created by the woodcutter, Johannes Schnitzer the world map is based on the work of Nicolaus Germanus a Benedictine monk of Reichenbach Abbey in Bavaria whose revision of Ptolemy’s ‘

’ were highly influential in the last quarter of the century. Schnitzer’s map is based on the second recension of Germanus’s work and uses the homeotheric projection which Ptolemy called superior but more difficult to construct. 

This is a revised edition of one of the most celebrated early world maps from 

’s ‘Cosmographia’, now better known as the Ulm Ptolemy. It drew from recent discoveries to create a fusion of the latest cartographic information with Classical knowledge. 

After Holl’s bankruptcy in 1484, the Venetian publisher Justus de Albano acquired Holl’s materials and commissioned 

 to produce this second edition in 1486. While the pigments used on this hand-coloured map would still have been luxurious, they were far cheaper than the ruinously expensive lapis lazuli used in Holl’s edition. The beautiful shades of this map and more restrained colouring allow greater sight of the underlying engraving, including the lovely details of the windheads and rivers.


Claudius Ptolemy made two major errors in his calculations of the size of the globe, and the configuration of Asia, both of which would have far-reaching consequences later. He adopted the estimate of the size of the earth from the astronomer, mathematician, and geographer, Hipparchus rather than the more accurate Eratosthenes, resulting in an assumed circumference nearly a third smaller than reality. He further exaggerated the eastward extent of Asia.

Christopher Columbus, using these figures, underestimated the distance he needed to travel west from Europe before he would reach the western coast of Cathay and the fabled Indies. Columbus took his plans for his proposed voyage to the Indies to the obvious choice, the Royal Court of Portugal, the preeminent promoters of exploration. His proposals were rejected on the grounds that, firstly, they were too expensive, secondly, he planned on sailing in the opposite direction to Portugal’s preferred route to the Indies via Cape Horn, and finally, that Columbus was wrong in his calculation of the distance to be travelled and that he and his crew would perish long before they reached land.

After having also been turned down by Henry VII of England, Columbus was reduced to going cap in hand to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Thanks to Isabella’s enthusiastic support, Columbus was finally able to get the necessary financial and material backing for his voyage. His discoveries in the 

 would in turn help transform Spain from a recently unified country impoverished by decades of conflict, into one of the most powerful and wealthy maritime nations in Europe.

A very fine example of Johannes Schnitzer’s map, with superb contemporary hand-colour in full, reissued by the printer 

 who economized by using colour wash rather than expensive pigments, like lapis lazuli, as Holl had done in his first edition. What was presumably originally a bluish purple, has migrated to brown over the intervening five hundred years. Another interesting alteration is that the Tropic of Capricorn, which had been correctly named in the first edition, is now labelled Tropic of Cancer.

Double-page woodcut Ptolemaic map of the world, with contemporary hand-colour in full

Reger’s Reissue of the Ulm Ptolemy World Map in Original Colour